On the Last Page

"Mimi don't,' his voice pleaded, 'don't finish the last page!" We had begun a tradition of reading one book in the Chronicles of Narnia series every Summer. Before I would begin reading I would whisper, "Do you want to go to Narnia with me?" This was the seventh Summer the seventh book and now we were on the last page.

He left for camp on Sunday the last page still unread. He still doesn't know the how it ends but I do. This is not my first time to read these books. I have visited Narnia many times with my children and now I go there with my grandchildren. The last thing he let me read to him was, "The light ahead was growing stronger." What he didn't let me read to him was, "And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story."

"It was only the beginning of the real story." That echos the feeling I have when I read the last book in the book of books. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." (Revelations 21:1) The first book told the story of creation which thrilled the soul until evil was introduced with marred the beauty. In the final book evil is done away with and there is a new beginning.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."(Revelation 21:3)

Lord Jesus, on the last page of Your book I read Your promise, "Surely I am coming soon." I add my voice to those who say, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen."